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Battle of Adwa
Part of the First Italo-Ethiopian War
British illustration of "Dabormida's last rally"
Date 1 March 1896; 128 years ago (1896-03-01) Location Adwa, Tigray Province, Ethiopia14°1′8″N 38°58′24″E / 14.01889°N 38.97333°E / 14.01889; 38.97333 (Battle of Adwa) Result Ethiopian victory
Belligerents
Ethiopia	Italy
Commanders and leaders
Menelik II Taytu Betul Ras Makonnen Ras Mengesha Ras Mikael Alula Engida Tekle Haymanot	Oreste Baratieri Vittorio Dabormida † Giuseppe Arimondi † Matteo Albertone  Giuseppe Ellena
Strength
73,000–100,000	14,519–17,770
Casualties and losses
3,886–7,000 killed	~6,000 killed 3,865 captured
class=notpageimage| Location within Ethiopia

The Battle of Adwa (Template:Lang-am; Template:Lang-ti; Template:Lang-it, also spelled Adowa) was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. The Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian invading force on Sunday 1 March 1896, near the town of Adwa. The decisive victory thwarted the campaign of the Kingdom of Italy to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa. By the end of the 19th century, European powers had carved up almost all of Africa after the Berlin Conference; only Ethiopia and Liberia still maintained their independence. Adwa became a pre-eminent symbol of pan-Africanism and secured Ethiopian sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War forty years later.

Background

In 1889, the Italians signed the Treaty of Wuchale with the then King Menelik of Shewa. The treaty, signed after the Italian occupation of Eritrea, recognized Italy's claim over the coastal colony. In it, Italy also promised to provide financial assistance and military supplies. A dispute later arose over the interpretation of the two versions of the document. The Italian-language version of the disputed Article 17 of the treaty stated that the Emperor of Ethiopia was obliged to conduct all foreign affairs through Italian authorities, effectively making Ethiopia a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. The Amharic version of the article, however, stated that the Emperor could use the good offices of the Kingdom of Italy in his relations with foreign nations if he wished. However, the Italian diplomats claimed that the original Amharic text included the clause and that Menelik II knowingly signed a modified copy of the Treaty.

The Italian government decided on a military solution to force Ethiopia to abide by the Italian version of the treaty. As a result, Italy and Ethiopia came into confrontation, in what was later to be known as the First Italo-Ethiopian War. In December 1894, Bahta Hagos led a rebellion against the Italians in Akele Guzai, in what was then Italian controlled Eritrea. Units of General Oreste Baratieri's army under Major Pietro Toselli crushed the rebellion and killed Bahta. The Italian army then occupied the Tigrayan capital, Adwa. In January 1895, Baratieri's army went on to defeat Ras Mengesha Yohannes in the Battle of Coatit, forcing Mengesha to retreat further south.

By late 1895, Italian forces had advanced deep into Ethiopian territory. On 7 December 1895, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael, Fitawrari Gebeyehu and Ras Mengesha Yohannes commanding a larger Ethiopian group of Menelik's vanguard annihilated a small Italian unit at the Battle of Amba Alagi. The Italians were then forced to withdraw to more defensible positions in Tigray Province, where the two main armies faced each other. By late February 1896, supplies on both sides were running low. General Oreste Baratieri, commander of the Italian forces, knew the Ethiopian forces had been living off the land, and once the supplies of the local peasants were exhausted, Emperor Menelik II's army would begin to melt away. However, the Italian government insisted that General Baratieri act.

On the evening of 29 February, Baratieri, about to be replaced by a new governor, General Baldissera, met with his generals Matteo Albertone, Giuseppe Arimondi, Vittorio Dabormida, and Giuseppe Ellena, concerning their next steps. He opened the meeting on a negative note, revealing to his brigadiers that provisions would be exhausted in less than five days, and suggested retreating, perhaps as far back as Asmara. His subordinates argued forcefully for an attack, insisting that to retreat at this point would only worsen the poor morale. Dabormida exclaimed, "Italy would prefer the loss of two or three thousand men to a dishonorable retreat." Baratieri delayed making a decision for a few more hours, claiming that he needed to wait for some last-minute intelligence, but in the end announced that the attack would start the next morning at 9:00am. His troops began their march to their starting positions shortly after midnight.

Order of battle

Ethiopian forces

• Shewa; Negus Negasti Menelik II: 25,000 rifles / 3,000 horses / 32 guns
• Semien; Itaghiè Taytu: 3,000 rifles / 600 horses / 4 guns
• Gojjam; Negus Tekle Haymanot: 5,000 rifles
• Harar; Ras Makonnen: 15,000 rifles
• Tigray; Ras Mengesha Yohannes and Ras Alula: 12,000 rifles / 6 guns
• Wollo; Ras Mikael: 6,000 rifles / 5,000 horses
• Gondar; Ras Gugsa Olié: 8,000 rifles
• Lasta; Wagshum Guangul: 6,000 rifles
• In addition there were ~20,000 spearmen and swordsmen as well as an unknown number of armed peasants.

Estimates for the Ethiopian forces under Menelik range from a low of 73,000 to a high of over 100,000 outnumbering the Italians by an estimated five times. The forces were divided among Emperor Menelik, Empress Taytu Betul, Ras Wale Betul, Ras Mengesha Atikem, Ras Mengesha Yohannes, Ras Alula Engida (Abba Nega), Ras Mikael of Wollo, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael,Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, Fitawrari Gebeyyehu, and Negus Tekle Haymanot Tessemma. In addition, the armies were followed by a similar number of camp followers who supplied the army, as had been done for centuries. Most of the army consisted of riflemen, a significant percentage of whom were in Menelik's reserve; however, there were also a significant number of cavalry and infantry only armed with lances (those with lances were referred to as "lancer servants").

1. ^ McLachlan, Sean (2011). Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896. Osprey Publishing. p. 42.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
2. Abdussamad H. Ahmad and Richard Pankhurst (1998). Adwa Victory Centenary Conference, 26 February – 2 March 1996. Addis Ababa University. pp. 158–62.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
3. Woldeyes, Yirga Gelaw (29 February 2020). "The battle of Adwa: an Ethiopian victory that ran against the current of colonialism". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 4 June 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
4. Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. Cite error: The named reference Abraham was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. Piero Pastoretto. "Battaglia di Adua" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 31 May 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2006.
7. Harold G. Marcus, The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia 1844–1913, 1975 (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1995), p. 170
8. David Levering Lewis, The Race for Fashoda (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987), p. 116. ISBN 1-55584-058-2
9. Mclachlan, Sean (20 September 2011). Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896. Bloomsbury USA. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-84908-457-4.
10. Pankhurst has published one collection of these estimates, Economic History of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie University, 1968), pp. 555–57. See also Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A–C. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003, p. 108.
11. Pétridès (as well as Pankhurst, with slight variations) break the troop numbers down (over 100,000 by their estimates) as follows: 35,000 infantry (25,000 riflemen and 10,000 spearmen) and 8,000 cavalry under Emperor Menelik; 5,000 infantry under Empress Taytu; 8,000 infantry (6,000 riflemen and 2,000 spearmen) under Ras Wale; 8,000 infantry (5,000 riflemen and 3,000 spearmen) under Ras Mengesha Atikem, 5,000 riflemen, 5,000 spearmen, and 3,000 cavalry under Ras Mengesha Yohannes and Ras Alula Engida; 6,000 riflemen, 5,000 spearmen, and 5,000 Oromo cavalry under Ras Mikael of Wollo; 15,000 Shewan riflemen under Ras Makonnen; 8,000 Amhara infantry under Fitawrari Gebeyyehu Gora; 5,000 riflemen, 5,000 spearmen, and 3,000 cavalry under Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, von Uhlig, Encyclopedia, p. 109.
12. ^ Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A–C (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), p. 108.
13. Richard Caulk, "Between the Jaws of Hyenas": A Diplomatic History of Ethiopia (1876–1896), p. 563
14. Raymond Jonas, "The Battle of Adwa" (Harvard University Press, 2011), pp. 648.

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